The Soul In The Code
by Ano-chan
Summary: A new player, wishing for greatness, finds everything changed upon hearing four words.  "I can see you..."


So here's another story I just felt like I needed to write. I have no idea if it's going to go anywhere, but oh well.

* * *

_The New World_

Those were the only words imprinted on the black disk. Staring at the words, written in a simple yellow outline, he couldn't help but feel a little disappointed. He had waited months for the game to finally arrive, and he'd even paid the extra few dollars for the early arrival. When the day arrived and he'd checked the mail, all he'd found was a simple cardboard box. Inside was an instruction manual that he immediately discarded, and the case for the CD.

Seeing nothing else to do, he walked over to his computer and put it in. He followed all of the commands that immediately popped up. Yes there was a CD in the computer. Yes he wanted to install it. After the final question the screen went dark and a loading bar appeared. Rather than sit and watch the bar fill, he grabbed a nearby book and began flipping through while he waited.

He found he could not pay any attention to the book, he was simply too excited as the bar inched closer and closer to the 100% mark. Finally, he abandoned the book and gave his full attention back to the computer.

Finally, as the bar reached 100%, the computer seemed to pause, as if taking in a breath, then burst into color. Thousands of images were flashing across the screen, there were groups of people fighting magnificent monsters, sometimes each other. There were beautiful cities; one that seemed golden as the sun set in the background. There even appeared to be a floating fortress. There were too many pictures of everything. Some looked to be made from his most amazing dreams, but one thing present in every image was a set of four words, and as the images continued to cycle, they became more and more clear.

"Welcome...to The World,"

The screen blinked back to black with only those words remaining, then they faded and a single button appeared.

"Start your story," it read. He immediately grabbed his mouse and clicked on the button. The screen went over to the character creation zone, asking the well known questions, gender, name, class. He filled them out in moment, having already planned it out during his months of waiting. Male, Koura, and Adept Rogue with the class combination of Blade Brandier and Shadow Warlock.

Typing in the information, he couldn't help the grin from spreading over his face. Finally, he was about to enter the game the entire world had been waiting for, there was just one more step, character customization. This was what drew so many people to The World. While there were only a few select character types, the thousands of different combinations of colors and clothing assured every player that their character would be entirely unique. With one final adjustment, his character was ready. Another click sent him off with a rush of color into The World.

Koura emerged into an area bathed in sunlight, The Eternal City, Mac Anu. With his face-mounted display, or FMD, he was able to examine the town through Koura's eyes. Great buildings rose up in all around him. One in particular was a great clock tower set in the middle of the town. Canals cut through the streets, the ever running water adding a sense of deep calm to everything. Eventually, he turned his gaze away from the buildings to look at himself to make sure everything had turned out right. Koura's hair was a deep gray, cut short so it barely fell to his eyes. He was dressed with a gray shirt and pants decorated with red wave patterns. His only armor appeared to be a silver pauldron on each shoulder with a matching pair of silver gantlets, leaving his upper arms bare. Strapped sideways on the back of his waist was a sword scabbard. The final adjustment was a pair of glasses with orange colored lenses. He had once heard of a powerful payer that had worn a similar pair and thought it was a good idea.

Satisfied that everything was right, Koura stepped forward, ready to begin his journey into The World, ready to fight ferocious beasts and win amazing treasures...only to stop and realize he had no idea _how_ he was going to do all of that. He'd really only planned up to creating his character. Quickly, he logged off, pulled off his FMD and began looking around for the instruction manual he'd discarded. Finding it lying against the garbage he quickly pulled it open and flipped to the 'Help' area in the back.

"Most new players needing help can go to the forums on Yomoyama where a multitude of questions can be answered, a few more tips are-" He tossed the manual aside again, quickly going back to the computer and logging on to the forums. Going to the game help area the screen was immediately flooded by pleas of newbies asking for gifts of gold or powerful items. Luckily, there was a main topic put up by the moderators titled, "Newbie needing some tips, check here first!" Seeing few other options, he picked that one.

It was full of the basic tips, make friends, try joining a guild, avoid the high level areas, but the number one tip was to try and immediately get some better armor and weapons. It suggested asking for an area on the forum. Leaning back in his chair, he tried to imagine what kind of weapon his character would look good with when he suddenly saw an image of Koura wielding a beautiful Japanese weapon. A katana, yes, that would work just fine.

Opening up the topic creator he filled out the main body with the message, "Hello, new player here, I was just wondering where I could find a good weapon for a Blade Brandier, a katana type would be very appreciated, thank you." He didn't like how cheerful the message sounded. He didn't want to start his game as a suck-up, but he knew that being nice would get him a lot more than being rude.

Surprisingly, he had only waited a few minutes when he heard the tone indicating a reply. Going back to the topic, he read the new message.

"Well, you could try your chances at Delta, Hidden Ruined Fate Castle. The final chest drops a rare sword every now and then, should be what you're looking for, good luck." Leaving a quick 'thank you,' he entered The World once again. Once more entering the rich splendor that was Mac Anu, Koura walked over to the Chaos Gate, pausing to stare at it, marveling at the structure, four levitating rings, the outside two spinning together while the inner ones spun of their own accord. Koura raised a hand, almost about to touch it when a voice pulled him out of his thoughts.

"Don't know how the Chaos Gate works? It's easy, all you do is select it with-"

"I know how it works!" Koura interrupted, turning to face the other player, trying to keep his expression smooth. The FMD had a nasty habit of displaying your emotions in real life, and the last thing he wanted to look like was embarrassed. As he completed turning he found himself face to face with a female player. He assumed that she was being played by a girl in real life, mostly because she was wearing a decent amount of clothing. Her hair was colored dark red and flowed down past her shoulders. She was clothed in a black heavy overcoat with a white scarf wrapped around her mouth. Under the coat she wore a loose red shirt and leggings. Her hands and feet were covered with thick plate armor.

"Oh sorry, it just looked like you were confused," she replied, "hey, you're Koura right? I read your post on the forums, you're looking for a rare sword," she nodded at him, and even though he couldn't see it, Koura knew she was grinning. He turned his back on her and began to select the Chaos Gate.

"Hey, wait, you're not going alone are you? Tons of people are gonna see that post, I wouldn't be surprised if there was a group of player killers waiting for you," she crossed her arms across her chest.

"Why would they do that? I just started," he countered, turning back to face her again.

"I don't know, that's just how some players get their kicks, plus, I think that area's a pretty high level, I doubt you'll last long, even without PK's."

"Nah, I'll be fine," he began to enter the area keywords when the girl's chiding voice called him back.

"Fine, go ahead, and when you get killed I'll be waiting here when you re-spawn, so you could go through that over and over, or you could accept my request actually have a chance at getting your sword," as she finished he heard a tiny ping, indicating that she was trying to send him her member address, something he needed if they were going to be in a party together. He sighed and accepted the request, adding her to his party. This was not how he'd imagined his adventure in the world starting out.

"Good," she said at his acceptance, "now we can have a formal introduction, I'm Amara, now lets go get that sword!" She stood to the side and allowed Koura to finally input the keywords into the chaos gate. With the final word entered, shimmering rings surrounded them both and they warped away.

* * *

As the lights cleared, Koura saw that they were standing on a drawbridge leading to the entrance of what was once a great castle. It had obviously fallen into ruin long ago, the many towers collapsed inward toward the main body, it looked like only the first floor was the only part they could feasibly explore.

"Wow, looks like they really upgraded the area this time," Amara observed.

"You played the older versions of The World?" Koura asked, intrigued.

"Well...no, but I've read about them, they used to simple grass fields, or maybe an underground cave, but a field like this they would usually save for an event or something. I wonder what other areas they've added with this expansion..."

"Yeah..." Koura was already imagining himself exploring ancient ruins, fighting beasts in mystical fortresses...

"Well, come on, lets get exploring," Amara announced, leading the way into the castle. Grumbling to himself, Koura followed after her.

The interior of the castle was incredibly dark. The only light allowed in was from the holes in the ceiling. Ruins and rubble were scattered everywhere so it was impossible to tell exactly which direction would lead to the end of the level, and not a dead end.

"So where are the monsters anyways?" Koura finally asked after running down a third hallway that was blocked by fallen rocks.

"Hum..." Amara thought for a few moments, "maybe they only attack once we've found the right path? That way it helps us know where we're going."

"Or they could have simply put one path," Koura grumbled as he turned down another pathway, hoping this was the right one. He'd only made it a few steps when something reached out from a pile of rubble and grabbed onto his ankle. Quickly stepping back he pulled the rest of it out from under the pile. A grinning skull leered up at him, it's white bones seeming to glow into the darkness. He aimed a kick with his free leg at the fleshless face. The attack didn't do much damage at all, but it did cause the skeleton to loosen it's grip enough for Koura to pull his ankle free. Backing away, the skeleton slowly pulled itself up from the ground, it's empty eye sockets following Koura.

"Hey, I think I found the right path," he called, in a moment Amara was right behind him.

"Oh, definitely," she agreed, gesturing further down the hall, gazing down there Koura was able to see the shapes of several more skeletons pulling themselves from the ruins.

"Okay, skeletons...undead...got any light magic?" she asked.

"Level one," Koura replied bluntly, "so no, what about you?"

"Sorry, only level three," she answered after a moment, "looks like we'll have to go with the old fashioned brute force! You do know how to fight right?" with a flash of light, her weapon appeared in her hand. It was a massive steel spear, almost as tall as she was, with a brilliant red jewel set at the base of the metal head. She was a Lord Partizan.

"Lets go!" she announced, charging forward at the group of undead. Not wanting to be outdone, Koura quickly drew his own weapon, a small steel short sword, and jumped forward to attack the skeleton that had latched onto his foot. Another thing that drew people to playing The World was how immersive the battle system was. A player had almost complete control over their character, dodging and blocking enemy attacks in the player was skillful enough. Obviously, stats and classes affected how easily a character could perform such actions, but it was still a powerful element of the game. The skeletons were fairly weak and could only manage sweeping attacks with their claw-like hands. Easily dodging them, Koura jammed his blade into the open hole under the jawbone and twisted, popping the head off of the spine. Stepping back warily, he was satisfied to watch the rest of the body crumble. Looking down the hall he saw that Amara was easily holding off the rest of the skeletons, swinging her spear in a wide arc to stop them all from charging in at once. Stepping up next to her she slowed the arc of her spear for a bit, allowing a single skeleton to rush forward, it's hands reaching forward to attack. Koura reached out his blade, slashing at the skeletal arms, causing the monster to back off with a hiss as the hit connected.

Wary now, the skeleton circled Koura, waiting for a chance. Not giving it one, Koura slashed at its midsection, sending the skeleton's upper half clattering to the ground. Seeing it still might be able to move, Koura finished it off by smashing the skull into the dirt with his foot. Using this tactic, they continued until there was only one quivering skeleton left.

"Dual skill finish?" offered Amara.

"Sounds good," agreed Koura, caught up in the heat of battle. Selecting the skeleton, he prepared the only attack skill he knew.

"Sword flash!" he cried, his blade glowing with energy.

"Air raid!" Amara cried simultaneously. They both rushed forward, Koura reached the monster first, lopping off both of it's arms before a third flash knocked it into the air. Quickly following, Amara impaled the prone body with her spear, and with a quick pivot, smashed it into dust against a nearby wall. As the ruins fell once more into silence Amara turned back to Koura.

"Nice work, lets keep moving," she told him, her weapon vanished into nothing, no longer needed.

"Right, but I'm leading this time," he quickly moved ahead of Amara, happy to be the leader of the group now.

"Okay" Amara shrugged, following behind him. They continued walking and surprisingly didn't run into any more wandering groups of monsters. Despite that fact, Koura kept his sword unsheathed, expecting an attack at any moment. Finally, they entered what was once a massive meeting room. Its glory had faded over the countless years and one of the walls had collapsed, allowing them a view at the outside world. The light from the open hole managed to illuminate the only thing left in the room, a throne, centered against the far wall. The years of dust and grime hadn't managed to completely cover it's golden sheen, making it look completely alien amongst all the destruction.

"Wow," admired Amara, "All this work for the graphics and lighting, for one room in one area."

"Yeah," replied Koura, not nearly as interested, "so you think we're close to the treasure room?"

"Probably," she answered, "but...can I ask you a question?"

"Sure," he replied after a moments hesitation.

"What's with the glasses?" she asked, gesturing at the orange colored glassware, "it seems like you made a guy around the color gray, why throw something so out of place on? It's been bugging me since I first saw you."

"Well..." he began hesitantly, "back in The World R:2 there was this player, probably one of the most famous players in the game, he had glasses like this, I thought it would...look cool," he ended on a murmur, realizing how stupid that sounded.

"So...you're trying to capitalize on his fame?" Amara mused.

"No, it's nothing like that," Koura argued, shaking his head, "look, just forget about it, lets finish this dungeon," pushing past he headed towards an open doorway near the throne, when the room began to rumble.

"Hey! Are there more skeletons or something?" he asked, his eyes darting about the room while trying to keep his balance.

"No, there's nothing here but rocks!" Amara called back, drawing her spear while trying to understand what was going on when her eyes opened in shock, "wait...that's it!"

"What's it?" Koura began to call back when he noticed movement out of the corner of his eyes. A boulder from one of the piles of ruin was rolling it's way toward him. Seeing no other option, he dived out of the way only to see that the boulder wasn't alone. It seemed like the different piles of rocks and rubble were almost alive as they flowed into the room, join at the center to become a giant mass of pulsating stone. Slowly, the rocks began to shape themselves, two legs grew from the bottom, their weight causing cracks in the ancient stone floor. Two arms formed out of a massive chest and a final group of stones rose out of the top to become a head. The monster towered over both of the players, it's head almost scraping the ceiling of the massive room. Even without any facial features, it seemed like it was glaring at them with an unyielding hatred.

"A rock golem, it's the boss we have to fight before we can get to the treasure," Amara explained, readying her weapon.

"You think the person on the forum could have mentioned this!" Koura shouted, watching the monster, waiting for it to strike.

'"Everybody knows about boss monsters, especially if you're going after a rare treasure, didn't you read the manual at all?" Koura didn't have time to form a reply because at that moment the golem decided on it's target, both of them. Raising both of it's massive arms, it brought them down with amazing speed to smash into the floor. They both managed to dodge the main attack, but the mere shock wave sent flung them off their feet. Pulling himself off the ground, Koura charged forward and slashed at it's exposed arms. Not surprisingly, the blade simply ricocheted off the stone, and the monster didn't even register the attack.

"It's resistant to physical attacks, you have to use magic on it," Amara offered.

"Level one!" Koura repeated, "Blade Brandier!"

"Well don't look at me!" Amara retorted, a hint of anger in her voice, "I'm a Lord Partizan, our best skills are attacks!" she dove to the side as one of the golem's fist flew towards her, demolishing the wall behind her. As the wall crumbled down into a pile, the ceiling graoned without the support. Noticing it, a grin appeared on Koura's face.

"Hey, I've got an idea!" he called, indicating upwards toward the ceiling.

"What...no!" Amara exclaimed once she got his meaning, "how do you know we won't get caught in-" she ducked away as another blow was aimed at her.

"I know for a fact we'll get crushed if we try to fight it normally!" Koura argued, running behind a pile of rocks for cover.

"Fine, you take the next wall down!" she called back. Groaning, Koura jumped out from behind the pile and managed to get in front of the wall by the throne.

"Hey! Over here!" he shouted, figuring it was the safest way to get the golem's attention. He was proven right as the golem turned and swung both of its arms at him, attempting to crush him between its two fists. Quickly, he rolled underneath the attack, letting it smash the wall to dust. As the wall began to collapse, the ceiling began to noticeably groan and several cracks began to spread along it's surface.

"Last one!" Amara cried, striking at the golem's exposed back. The monster angrily turned on her, but instead of a simple bashing with its fists, it turned its whole body into a weapon. It charged straight forward, intent on utterly destroying her. Knowing blocking would be useless, she ducked between the charging monster's legs. It tried to grab her, but she was too fast, and it obliterated the wall behind her. Now with only one wall left, this one with the hole to the outside, the ceiling began to noticeably crumble, great chunks thundering down around them.

"Okay, lets get out of here!" Koura called, running for the hole in the last wall while Amara followed quickly behind him. Both of them fled out into the bright sunlight, collapsing in a calm field of grass growing in the courtyard of the castle. Lying on his back, Koura let out a triumphant laugh.

"Think we got it?" he asked jokingly.

"Even if it's not dead, I doubt it's going to get out from that mess we made," replied Amara, slowly sitting up, "I'm surprised we were even able to do that, I've heard a few rumors of area destruction but I didn't think of anything that big. I wonder if the area resets for the next group of people who come here...or if the game simply opens up another path for them..." she closed her eyes thinking.

"Yeah..." Koura finally said, "You think the treasure got buried in the collapse?"

"Oh!" her eyes shot open, "maybe, that would be awful though, wouldn't it? Lets go check," she got up to head back into the ruins. Entering the ruins, Koura noticed that it was much brighter now, mostly because half the ceiling was missing. Amazingly, the throne was still untarnished, it was surrounded by rubble, but otherwise untouched. That was when Koura noticed something different. Seated on the throne was a single golden chest.

"Wow, I guess it must appear once you defeat the boss. Well, go ahead," Amara gestured towards the chest. Walking forward, Koura slowly opened the chest. Reaching inside he pulled out a decently sized bag of gold, which soon vanished into his inventory, and a long, thin sword, sheathed in a black scabbard. The game identified it as "The Tarnished Katana," which seemed to fit. It resembled much of the castle around them, old, and forgotten. He happily replaced his short sword with the new weapon.

"Now what about me?" asked Amara.

"What?" replied Koura, confused.

"You think I came all this way just for fun? I deserve some of the reward, how about the gold?" she explained, crossing her arms across her chest.

"Oh, sure," accepted Koura, not really caring about the money, "...uh, how do I give it to you?"

"Oh come on," sighed Amara, "okay, select my character, then click 'gift,' then pick 'gold.'" as Koura began to comply, he something caught his attention, it looked like it simply static on the screen, but in an instant, the screen was covered. A roaring sound was blasted into his ear, but before he could try anything, the screen returned to normal with what sounded like a snap.

"Wait, did you see that?" he asked, looking about nervously.

"Hey, no trying to distract me so I forget about the gold. Nothing happened, so hurry up with-" she was not allowed to finish, because at that moment, they were both torn from the field. Back at home, looking through his FMD at a black screen, he had no idea what to do, it looked like The World had crashed yet...it some strange way, it felt like his character was moving somewhere. Then, with a bright flash of light, the screen cleared to show an empty room. But, as he glanced around the room thorough Koura's eyes he saw something else, a chair. It was situated in the middle of the room, and seemed to be empty. Something was hanging from the arms of the chair, and as he moved closer he was able to recognize them...chains.

Without warning, a hand plastered itself across the screen, almost causing him to pull the FMD off. However, something forced him to continue watching. A face followed the hand, it looked like it belonged to a girl, but what caught his attention were her eyes. They were cold and dark, and refused to let him turn away.

"I can see you..."

* * *

So what did you think? I have a basic idea of where this story is going, but I would like to know what you, the readers think. Please review and don't hold back the criticism.


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